My Boys
by tinyhobbit
Summary: It's seventh year and Lily Evans is overworking herself - between school work, head girl duties, seeing her boyfriend and keeping her friends happy, she ends up fainting from exhaustion in the common room...It's up to her boyfriend's best friends to look after her. One-shot, James/Lily but mainly friendship between Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Marauder era.


**I don't own Harry Potter.**

 **Set in the middle of seventh year.**

Lily didn't feel well.

It had started this morning, when she woke up and realised her head was aching and her eyes were as tired as they had been when she dropped her head to the pillow the night before. But she had head girl duties to maintain, studying to do, a boyfriend to see, classes to go to and to top it all off her friends had started complaining they never saw her anymore.

The night before she had spent the evening with them instead of James, and then stayed up until 3am trying to get her homework and studying done so that she was keeping up with her schedule. It made sense that she was feeling ill. James had been telling her she needed to slow down all week, that he would pick up the slack with the head boy stuff, but she had so much to do and the world wasn't going to wait.

She was burnt out, simply put, but the longer she ignored it, the more time she would have to get everything done and finally have a well deserved rest.

She had trudged through classes, skipping lunch to study and hoping nobody noticed.

It was evening now and Lily was determinedly making her way through the last essay of the night. Her neck was aching, and every so often she reached to rub it, trying to ease the pain. It was about 10pm and the dim candlelight was hurting her already sore eyes. Her head felt like it was filled with cotton wool, twanging with pain every now and then. To add to that, she was feeling very unsteady and knew that she should be heading to bed or she'd just make herself worse, but she _had_ to finish this.

The common room was slowly emptying as people began to give up and go to bed. Lily was sitting at a corner table alone – James had called an extra Quidditch practise because they had a match soon, and he probably wouldn't be back for another half an hour. Her friends were in the dorm, probably about to sleep, and she had little clue of where the rest of the Marauders were.

As if they heard her thinking about them, three boys relaxed into the seats beside her.

"Hey, Lils," Sirius said, covering his mouth as he yawned.

She smiled, trying to appear bright and not show that she was dead on her feet. "Hi, guys,"

"You still doing that essay?" Remus said, and Lily looked up to see his eyes were soft with what appeared to be concern. "You look like you need your bed,"

"I'm almost finished, it's fine," she said. "I'll go to bed after I've seen James."

"That was our plan too," Sirius said, "You good with us joining you?"

Lily nodded, feeling dizzy as the room lurched with the movement. "Just let me finish this and then you'll have my full attention," she said with another smile.

The boys spoke in hushed tones as Lily scribbled a conclusion. She rubbed her eyes, the words blurring in front of her as she finished her essay. She barely knew what she was writing but her head was aching so much she didn't think she could cope with writing anymore.

"Done," she said with relief as she dropped the quill on the table.

"Great," Peter said with a grin. "James should be back any minute."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh, dropping her eyes closed for a second in the hope she could steady herself. She still felt like she was spinning, but the sensation worsened when she opened them again. She missed the concerned looks the boys shot at each other while her eyes were closed. Sirius looked upstairs before turning to his friend and Remus nodded, a plan formulated without words.

"Lily, do you want to come wait for James upstairs in the dorm?" he asked, "It'll be a bit more comfortable than here,"

Lily thought about how tempting it would be to be surrounded by her boyfriend's scent rather than in her own cold bed before she could actually see him. "Yeah, that would be good."

They nodded and got to their feet. As soon as Lily stood however, she felt hot. There were pins and needles in her hands and she felt sweaty and exhausted. The room was swimming around her and all she could think was: "Not here, please not here."

"Lily?" someone beside her said, as she swayed, dizziness taking over. She felt incredibly weak, and knew she was going to topple over any minute. "Lily!" the voice said again more urgently. She could barely see, everything fuzzy around her.

"Lily, sit down," Remus said, moving her body gently towards the couch. She could just make out his worried face and she wanted to tell him she was fine, but she could barely move, let alone speak. Her limbs gave up and she stumbled. Strong hands grabbed her under the arms.

"Oh, crap!" someone said. She couldn't see, and a sense of panic rose up in her, her breath coming out in short gasps.

"Sit her down!"

"Lily, can you hear me?" someone said and she felt the soft couch under her legs. The dizziness got too much and her entire body went limp. Someone was holding her up, but her head was lolling to the side, and she was unable to move it.

"Lie her down, she's passed out," She was lowered down, lying on her back, one hand hanging off the couch.

Lily felt a cold hand on her forehead, "She's burning up, Remus,"

"Elevate her legs,"

"Pete, get a cold cloth for her head,""

"Should we get someone?"

"Wait for her to wake up and we'll see how she feels."

"Crap."

"Lily, hon, can you hear me?" someone was close to her ear, stroking the hair back from her face. She recognised Remus' voice and slowly began to open her eyes. She moaned.

"It's all right, Lils, you're fine," Remus said, his calm voice soothing.

"What just happened?" she said, annoyed at how weak her voice sounded. She saw out of the corner of her eye Peter running in and handing Sirius a cold cloth. He placed it on her forehead and she gasped at how cold it was on her flaming skin.

"You fainted," Sirius said, crouching down beside her head. "Have you ever done that before?"

"No," Lily whispered, still feeling ill and slightly shaken up by the ordeal, although her head wasn't spinning quite the same as it had been. "Can I sit up?"

Sirius and Remus helped her upright, pausing as she looked a bit pale again as the room span a little. They plopped down on either side of her, Peter sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch. Sirius put an arm round her, and she leaned into him, not feeling quite strong enough to sit up by herself.

"We should really take you to the hospital wing..." Remus said, but Lily was already shaking her head.

"Honestly, I'm fine. I'm just tired or something."

"Lils, you're not just tired," Sirius said, "You've been overworking yourself."

"I'm fine," she said, although her eyes had slipped closed of their own accord again.

"Lily, you just fainted," Remus said, "You've got a fever and you can barely keep your eyes open. You've not stopped the last couple of weeks and, honestly, it's finally caught up with you. We've been getting worried, and with good reason it would seem."

Lily shrugged, "I've got a lot to do,"

Sirius sighed as Remus dabbed her forehead again. "You don't need to do everything, Lils. You're taking five hundred classes at the moment, you could easily drop one or two and still become a healer. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," she said, "I just..." she trailed off, her eyes filling up with tears that she'd been trying to keep in.

"You don't need to prove yourself to anyone, you know?" the comment came from Peter – sweet little Peter, who was normally so quiet. Maybe it made sense that Peter, the one who was often looked at as the misfit in the group, would be the one to understand exactly what she was thinking.

"I know, I just..." a tear rolled down her cheek, "I just, I heard some girls talking about how I didn't deserve to be Head Girl, or James' girlfriend, because I was just some filthy little mudblood who would never be as good as anyone else in the year." She set her jaw, unable to believe she was saying this out loud. She didn't want to see the outrage on the boy's faces.

"Lils," Sirius started speaking.

"If I don't work hard, then people will think I shouldn't be here. I just need to prove that I belong here and it'll be fine."

"Prove to who?" Remus asked, a small smile on his face. "Yourself?"

"No, I...I don't know."

"Lily, those girls didn't know anything," Sirius said. "You belong here more than half those dunces in Slytherin do. You're top of the class, above all the pure bloods and Slytherins!"

"But they still don't think I belong," she said, her face crumpling as the tears began to fall. Sirius put his arms round her and held her to him, not even flinching as his shirt became soaked with tears. Remus had a hand on her shoulder, his face downcast.

"D'you think any of us here belong?" Sirius said and Lily laughed a bitter laugh, moving away from the embrace. She tried to wipe away her tears, but more just replaced them.

"Of course you do!" she exclaimed, "You're the Marauders – the most popular boys in this place. Everybody loves you."

"Yeah," Sirius snorted, "You're sitting in the company of a werewolf, a guy who was disowned and another guy who turns into a rat when he feels like it," she giggled, "None of us exactly fit in."

"Lily, you belong here more than anyone," Peter said, reaching out to pat her hand. "You don't need to prove that to yourself or any other idiot here."

Lily smiled, "Thanks, guys,"

"And while we're at it," Remus said, "How's about dropping a couple of classes, eh? You've been working yourself into the ground and I think tonight shows that you need to stop that."

Lily looked reluctant, but nodded, leaning against Sirius as she felt absolutely exhausted. Her eyes were closing again as Sirius said: "Why did you keep this bottled up for so long?"

She shrugged, but Remus interjected, "Lily, we love you. I hope you don't just think of us as your boyfriend's friends, because we think of you as a best friend."

Lily's smile was soft, but the way her eyes lit up told the boys that was exactly what she needed to hear. "I love you guys," she said.

"Go to sleep, Lils," Sirius said, "We'll wake you up when James is back." She nodded into his shoulder, already dozing off, her body relaxing for what must have been the best sleep she'd had in a while.

When James entered the common room, his Quidditch robes covered in dirt, he was surprised at what he saw. His three best friends sat on the couch, his girlfriend squashed in between them. She looked pale, but the soft smile on her sleeping face told him that he shouldn't be too worried.

"Guys?" he said, and his friends looked up with tired smiles.

"Hey James," Remus said, his voice quiet. Sirius shook Lily gently, whispering that James had arrived.

"What's going on?" he asked, coming to sit on the coffee table Peter had been perched on before he joined his friends in the snuggle session on the couch.

"James?" Lily asked, her eyes opening. She was feeling really ill, and she was on the verge of accepting it.

"Hi, love," he said, placing a hand on her knee. "You're very warm," he looked at his friends, questions in his eyes.

"She fainted," Remus said, putting a hand on her forehead to check her temperature again, "She's been overworking herself."

"It's fine, James," she said, smiling at his beautiful, hazel eyes, "My boys looked after me."

"Do you feel better now?" he asked, almost forgetting there were others in the room that weren't the two of them.

She nodded, "A bit. But I think I need to go to the hospital wing," she said, as the boys cheered quietly at the result.

"Okay, let's get you down," James pulled her up, and she leaned heavily on him as he led her out the door. "Thanks, guys," he said to his friends as they left the portrait hole.

"Your boys, eh?" he asked his half asleep girlfriend.

"Yeah," she said, feeling tired and dizzy, but content. "My boys."

And as they made their way to the hospital wing, Lily knew in her heart that even though she would never belong here in the eyes of some of the school, in the eyes of those who mattered, she did. And that's all she cared about.

 **I hope you enjoyed this! I love James/Lily stories, but wanted one where the other boys show her how much the love her** **I wrote this really quickly, so it's not my best work (I'm procrastinating!) but feel free to leave a review to let me know what you think. Thanks!**


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